Perception is tough in the eyes of the blind. How do you know where you are, or what you need if your eyesight is impaired? But to complicate it, what if you only choose to be blind, simply choose not to see. Look at it another way. How do you get help? - You ask for it. But when you are certain you need no help, you are nearly certain not to ask. And the perception of someone else, that you are in desperate need of help, is meaningless unless you share that same perception, recognize your need, and ask for the help that will resolve the matter. This is the splinter that resides in the eyes of the sinner; that they have forgotten their need, or choose not to see it. And this is the tree-trunk that resides in the eyes of the modern Christian; that they believe it is their job to convict of sin, when only the Holy Spirit can do that. So how do we save both the sinner, and the modern Christian, who refuse to see their need? Short answer is; we don’t, but Jesus does.
Perhaps one of the most famous “fire and brimstone” preachers in scripture was John the Baptist (at least if you only read Matthew’s account). John preached “repentance”. But is repentance condemnatory, or redemptive? John calls sinners to repentance; he does not burst into their lives, pointing out their sins, and reminding them of how wrong each sin is from heaven’s accounting point of view. Actually, he makes no accusation at all about “which” sin any of his listeners might be committing. Instead John focuses only on the “need” to repent. “Which” sins we have committed, the ones we know we should not have done, is a silent matter between us and God. It is the Holy Spirit that calls those desires, actions and motives to mind. It is the Holy Spirit who would see us freed from our bondage to them, not continually enslaved to them. But there goes that funny thing of perception once again.
The Holy Spirit sees the sin in us for what it truly is; an addiction to self-love we are powerless to break. Even if our hands can be held in check, our hearts cannot. We still want to sin. And very often we do what we want. When we see we are unable to fix the cycle of sin, when we recognize our need, then FINALLY Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit is able to free us from those desires, motives and actions that otherwise enslave us. But the perception of sin as enslaving is one the divine understands. The human perception of sin is often not the same. We see sin as some sort of fun-house, we don’t want to lose. We see the lack of sin as boredom squared. A life without any disobedience is the life of some goody-two-shoes we would simply not want. So we cling to our sins, figuring we can always give them up in our future. But that future never arrives. Even though we do not seem to evolve, our sin does. Sin does change over time in that it gets worse. We hurt others more, we hurt ourselves more, and we hurt God more (because He loves us and hates seeing us do this to ourselves).
The trick for saving sinners then, is to simply expose them to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes over from there. But here is where performing this work gets tricky. Most modern Christians believe it is their job to preach the word; defining those terms as condemning and judging others who are clearly sinners for the sins they commit. We believe our job is to enlighten these ignorant sinners about the sins they commit, as if they could not see them themselves. We believe that only through our careful enlightenment and public exposure of their sins, will the sinner ever desire to leave those sins behind (I would guess through embarrassment of public ridicule as this plan has not been well thought out). While we ourselves still cling to the pet-sins in our own lives, we are quick to condemn the same ones in the lives of others. Our entire “gospel” then becomes pointing out sins in others. No love. No redemption. No method of actually getting rid of those sins, but then, how could we offer something we have never experienced. So when you boil it down; we offer, no hope. At least, no hope for living differently in this world. We bundle up forgiveness and sell the prospects of life in the next world. In this one, only condemnation for the crap in your life.
So to save our modern Christian, we need to recognize our need of an entirely different gospel. The new gospel does not depend on you or me. The new gospel depends only on Jesus. If work needs to get done, then Jesus must do it. In us, for us, in spite of us. We keep pointing at Jesus, and Jesus takes over from there. Jesus deals with the sins, the desires to sin, and sometimes our continued failures in sin. The best way to point to Jesus is to love, not to focus on sin. Loving someone gives them a reason to change, not a reason to rebel. Loving someone in spite of what they do, gives them an example of forgiveness, not an ethereal explanation of it. But loving like this is hard. Well at least, it is hard with an unchanged heart. Time to go to Jesus again. Time to seek an entirely different heart and subsequently different perspective. Fear just does not do the job. But love does. So let’s examine the ministry of John the Baptist (from the perspective of Matthew) and see what kind of twist he puts in the reputation he carries for one of the loudest and most famous hellfire and brimstone preachers.
Matthew begins his account in chapter three of his gospel picking up in verse 1 saying … “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, [verse 2] And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew has skipped forward through the youthful years of Jesus and is now right at the public start of His ministry. John the Baptist is actually the cousin of Jesus and just coincidentally follows the customs of the Nazarene’s with his own hair. John is what we would call an ultra-conservative in appearance and manner. Thus far, a perfect candidate for hellfire and brimstone preaching. But the twist is in his message. It is a simple one. John calls for repentance. John also offers a reason why repentance is so important at this time in earth’s history; because the kingdom of God is at hand. God is about to be with us. God will be in human form, and in point of fact, he has already been with us for nearly 30 years with only minimal notice. So why is the message of John different? Because John is declaring that God will be revealed to all of us very shortly. Proximity with God. The ability to see God, talk to God, and have the eyes of God look right through you.
Now imagine you are a typical Israelite in these days. Chances are you are too poor to have the luxury of time to commit a wide variety of sins. But poverty is no protection against the sins you are certain to have committed in spite of it. You go to Temple. You make sacrifice. But you have never thought that God might be within talking distance. You have never thought of having God be close enough to see you with human eyes, but divine insight. If you are to greet God in person, you want to be ready to do it. You want to be clean inside. You want to be dipped into the waters, have your carnal nature symbolically die, and be resurrected a new creation. A new creation unto your God, who has been so long desired. None of this message has anything to do with toppling the Roman empire. None of this message has anything to do with condemnation of you for what you do. Instead it is an opportunity to make ready inside yourself for God. It is open to everyone. It is constant. John is always preaching about it. And when you are close, you feel the Holy Spirit convict your heart, and you long to make ready and be clean.
The message of repentance is not about judgment, it is about proximity with God on earth. The message of repentance is not about punishment it is about reconciliation. Your average sinner gets this. Your average sinner has been exposed to the Holy Spirit through the ministry of John, without condemnation or judgment or public humiliation. Matthew continues in verse 3 saying … “For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Again Matthew ties together the Old Testament with the New in the life of Jesus Christ. Isaiah foretold of the power of this message (referencing his book in chapter 40 and verse 3). This proclamation would therefore be blessed by the Holy Spirit as the time for it was at hand. Malachi (referencing chapter 4 and verse 5) would also foretell of it in the sending of Elijah before the end of time. Jesus would later call reference to Malachi, in explaining the importance of the ministry of John, and how John’s ministry fulfills those words.
Matthew then goes on to describe John more fully and the results of his ministry among sinners picking up in verse 4 saying … “And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. [verse 5] Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, [verse 6] And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.” John wore simple homemade clothing from things he could put together. John ate bugs (large ugly ones) and likely dipped them in honey to enhance the taste. His diet was desert fair, food his God would provide to him. Matthew describes these things not as the reason people came to see him. But to insure his readers understand John was not wearing priestly clothing of fine raiment, and eating a priestly diet of sacrificial meats and vegetables a priest could afford. John was dirt poor. His clothing and his food were poorer than those who came to see him. Even beggars did better financially than John. But John was taken care of by God. While John did not have much, he had what he needed from his God.
Then there was the results of the ministry of John. Word of mouth, spread quickly about John. Not because he was some nut in the desert near the river preaching nutball theories. But John’s ministry held spiritual blessing, and the Holy Spirit was present to all who would come to hear. John was not preaching to make income, or himself famous. John was preaching for his listeners, with the ecstatic news that God would soon be among them. His words were loud and clear, and pierced right to the heart of those who came to hear. When they went home at night, they told everyone they knew about what had happened to them. They had been baptized in the river Jordan without a second thought. In spite of how embarrassing it might have been they publicly declared and confessed their sins during the baptism because they were so moved by the Holy Spirit. They came to John burdened, they left unburdened and made free by the power of the Holy Spirit. This message was not to be missed.
So many modern preachers believe it is their duty, their responsibility, to reach the hearts of their listeners. But it is not. They offer only words. It is the Holy Spirit that turns those simple words in the ears of the listener into life altering musings from the very throne of God Himself. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the listener is willing to give up his sins, begin his life over, and lay everything at the altar of our God. They come burdened but leave free. They come burdened but leave with a sense of hope. No modern preacher accomplishes this feat, but the Holy Spirit cannot be denied in doing it.
The difference between the results from one sermon to another is not the skill of the preacher, but the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the listeners. The preacher already knows the truth. The listeners are revealed the Truth in a deeper way ONLY by the Holy Spirit, or not at all. The preacher’s blessing is to offer the testimony of what Jesus has done for him. The preacher is honored to participate. But it is the Holy Spirit who drives ALL the results, not just some of them. How often has the Holy Spirit been stifled, because the minister believes he can do it himself, with his great oratory skills, with his great PowerPoint overheads, and because he has achieved a level of fame in himself. It is our taking the credit the stifles the flow of He who alone can accomplish what our feeble attempts never will.
Matthew has concluded his recollections of John’s ministry for the common sinners among us. He has recited a brilliant ministry with stunning national results in changing the life of the common believer. Israel had not seen this kind of ministry since the age of the prophets, and even they were not often focused on the common man. This was unprecedented. This could serve well the effort of a modern ministry or Christian as an example of public outreach. John was steeped in humility. John shunned all wealth, he took no offerings to support his ministry. John was homeless. John lived off the land and the mercy of God. John’s ministry was blessed by the Holy Spirit. John offered a way to become clean again. John never called out any particular sinner’s sin, or publicly humiliated anyone. John offered a way to be free, and many took him up on it. John had twisted the rules of a fire and brimstone preacher quite a bit. But this was for the common man, the common sinner, the common believer.
The message of John for the leadership of the church was something else entirely …
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